Piranha Games and Infinite Game Publishing have revealed how you can get in on the MechWarrior Online closed beta with the Operation: Inception Founder's Program.

Quote:

MONTREAL - May 22, 2012 - Calling all MechWarrior® fans! MechWarrior Online is heading into the first closed beta this week (fans can register now for a chance to gain access at www.mwomercs.com) and Piranha Games and Infinite Game Publishing have revealed how fans can obtain guaranteed early access this summer with OPERATION INCEPTION: an exclusive MechWarrior Online™ Founder’s Program that goes on sale June 19th.

I tried the Mechwarrior 3 back when it was only 12 years old, because a friend swore how great it was. I stopped playing after about 5 minutes because I couldn't seem to control the fucking thing. I'm guessing I wasn't the only one.

My interest has been seriously flagging for months, between the whole approach of grinding for goodies and pared-down design from the initial retail release concept, and now this F2P, which honestly we all knew would have micro transactions, now has $30 and $60 premium buy-in options?

Seriously. WTF. Make up your fucking minds, Pirahna. For $60 mother fucking dollars, I want to be able to fully customize a mech from 20 to 100 tons, with any and all components, right from launching the game without fucking MMO grinding to get it, AND the ability to create a private match where I and my friends can slug it out without having to suffer strangers in our midst.

Give me that, and I'll happily be first in line with my $60, but I somehow doubt that's going to be the case.

__________________Choose your government: the majority ruling the minority, the minority ruling the majority, or everyone ruling themselves long as they do not initiate force, fraud, or theft against one another.

Mechwarrior, as much as their approach is pissing me right the fuck off and making me want to kick their loved ones in the face, still seems to be more of a tactical, deliberate, combat sim with an appropriately slower pace to the actual gameplay, vs. Haken's gameplay, which appears to be straight-up, old-fashioned, run-and-gun FPS thrash and blast frenzy where your avatar just happens to be a big robot instead of a roid-raging super hero.

Mechwarrior, as much as their approach is pissing me right the fuck off and making me want to kick their loved ones in the face, still seems to be more of a tactical, deliberate, combat sim with an appropriately slower pace to the actual gameplay, vs. Haken's gameplay, which appears to be straight-up, old-fashioned, run-and-gun FPS thrash and blast frenzy where your avatar just happens to be a big robot instead of a roid-raging super hero.

Here's my problem with the whole 'Hawken is just an FPS pretending to be a mech sim' you some keep saying...

If people ever did create actual mechs, I think it would be a lot more like Hawken than like Mechwarrior.

The size difference accounts for the majority of the differences. Hawken-mech suits aren't much larger than an actual person, whereas mechwarrior has you in robots the size of three story houses.

There's a major problem with that--you could never build one in reality. Metals don't exist and aren't likely to exist that are strong enough to pull that off, with energy densities powerful enough to propel them, and if they did exist by some radical improvement in technology YOU CAN DAMN WELL BET THAT HEAT BUILDUP WILL BE THE LAST THING AN ENGINEER OF THAT PERIOD WOULD HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT.

Okay, so I'm bitter, you know that, and I judge games critically from a realism perspective of actual mechanics (when it comes to scifi at least, I'm more of a hard-scifi guy in gaming).

__________________Choose your government: the majority ruling the minority, the minority ruling the majority, or everyone ruling themselves long as they do not initiate force, fraud, or theft against one another.

The way they play is still as I described. One (mechwarrior) plays as a more deliberate, considered, tactical/strategic affair, and the other (Hawken) is a FPS (strictly going by what they've shown of it so far).

If Hawken does end up eating Mechwarrior's lunch, it won't be because it's a better mech sim (because, well, it's a pure FPS), it'll be because gamers are lazy and it'll be easier to pick up and play, combined with Piranha's screwing the pooch with a level-grinding F2P MMO with multiple levels of pay-to-win that still won't let players play the game the way they want to play it.

Now I'm not saying Hawken doesn't deserve success, and right this minute the approach being taken with Mechwarrior is such a hot mess you better believe I'm twice as likely to play Hawken than I will Mechwarrior. All I'm saying is that they aren't the same kind of game past the cosmetic aspect.